Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy set for slump-ending duel at Bridgestone

Justin Thomas enters the final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational looking for his first PGA title since February. To do that, he will need to hold off Rory McIlroy.

Justin Thomas said earlier this week it “feels like I haven’t won in forever.” The No. 3 player in the world is now a round away from changing that at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Thomas shot a three-under 67 in the third round at Firestone Country Club in Akron on Saturday, and will take a three-shot lead at 14-under into Sunday’s final round.

It wasn’t too long ago that Thomas seemed like he couldn’t lose. In February he won the Honda Classic, his seventh victory in 31 events. The next week he lost in a playoff to Phil Mickelson in Mexico. But since that runner-up finish he has just one top-ten in a stroke play event. He missed the cut at the Open Championship two weeks ago.

In order for Thomas to end his small drought, he will have to overcome his playing partner on Sunday. Rory McIlroy matched Thomas’ 67 on Saturday and sits at 11-under, three behind.

Like Thomas, McIlroy is going through his own slump. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March for his first victory in 18 months, then had a great chance to win The Masters and complete the career Grand Slam. A disappointing final round, however, dropped him to a tie for fifth. After falling short at Augusta, McIlroy has been runner-up at the BMW PGA Championship and the Open Championship. He says he’s tired of constantly coming up empty in tournaments.

“I’ve finished second way too many times this year,” he said after his round on Saturday. “I played well enough to win a few times this year and I only got over the line once. Tomorrow’s a great opportunity to try and win again…I’m getting a little sick of the second places.”

Thomas says he enjoys playing with McIlroy, but with so much at stake on Sunday he can’t become too focused on what his opponent is doing.

“It will be fun. Rory and I have played together a lot in tournaments, but never in this kind of situation,” Thomas said on Saturday. “So it will be different. We’ll both be doing our own thing. I’m sure we’ll chat here and there between shots, but he’s out there doing his thing and I’ll be out there doing mine.”

The return to form comes at just the right time for Thomas. Next week he attempts to defend his PGA Championship that he won last year at Quail Hollow. If he needs an example of how success at Bridgestone can carry over, he only needs to look at his playing partner. McIlroy won both the Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship in 2014. Four times since 2011 has the winner of the PGA Championship been in the last two groups Sunday at Bridgestone.

That 2014 title is McIlroy’s last major championship. Four years on, he admits he is working hard to rediscover the swing he had back then when he was the dominant player in the world.

“Someone said, you feel similar to how you did in ’14, and I said I feel similar in how I can get myself around a golf course,” he said. “But I’m just not swinging as well as I did back then. I’m trying to get back to that shape of swing. It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s a continuous process.”

Thomas feels like his lead is big enough where he doesn’t have to match McIlroy shot-for-shot. He says his job on Sunday is to limit his mistakes and make McIlroy catch him.

“Sounds like just beat him,” he said. “I mean, it’s very cliché and obvious, but I just need to beat him. I’m in a position where I can play smart. I don’t need to play really conservative. But I just need to go out tomorrow and have a blemish-free round. I feel the field will need to chase after me a little bit.”

Ian Poulter is tied with McIlroy at 11-under, while Jason Day is alone in fourth at 10-under.

Thomas and McIlroy tee off at 2:00 p.m. ET. If they want to recreate the duel they will have on Sunday, they won’t have to wait long. They are paired together, along with Tiger Woods, for the first two rounds at Bellerive next week.